A Jedi's Quest
by Nezuban
Summary: The beginning of a story where a Jedi must rescue a child Qui-Gon Jinn. I will continue this fic only if I get enough reviews.


STAR WARS:  
  
A Jedi's Quest  
  
by Nezuban  
  
  
  
**117 years prior to SW: ep.4**  
  
1  
  
Viktyr and Lana Jinn sat in the cockpit of their light freighter, fingers dancing over controls and hands violently wrenching the control yoke. Lana blew a drop of sweat off the tip of her nose as she veered her family's craft hard to port. Viktyr climbed out of his seat and began to prep the navicomputer for the jump to lightspeed.  
  
But their efforts were all for naught. As the coordinates were set into the computer, they were grabbed by a tractor beam from the pursuing battleship. Viktyr, standing behind his seat, was flung head first into the copilot's control panel. Lana, though strapped safely in the pilot's seat, was lurched forward, the straps digging into her strong shoulders.  
  
"I think they have us, Viktyr," she said as their ship was being pulled towards their pursuers.  
  
"Not if I can help it!" her husband replied. He shook off his dizziness and wiped away the spot of blood that had formed on his forehead, and began to charge the main guns of their freighter. When they were charged, he aimed them at the tractor beam generator that held them. He fired, and the generator was destroyed quickly. Lana punched the thrusters and their ship sped away. Viktyr, on the other hand, launched a trio of proton torpedoes into the battleship's hull, which soon thereafter exploded, the shockwave rocking his ship.  
  
Lana let out a whoop of delight, and Viktyr burst into a string of swears directed at the dead hulk of a battleship, and the nation that owned it. He reentered the coordinates into the computer, and Lana was just about to make the jump to hyperspace when the scanners picked up a new threat: four electro-mag torpedoes, designed to disable a craft upon detonation.   
  
"Oh, no! They've got us this time!" Lana cried. Viktyr nodded gravely, no longer with the feeling that they could get out of this mess. The pair braced for the physical impact of the torpedoes.  
  
When the four electro-mag torpedoes detonated on the engine pod, the sheer velocity the torpedoes traveled at was enough to throw the freighter into a spin, and the electromagnetic charges danced over the control panels. Soon, everything in the ship went dark, only to be slightly illuminated soon afterwards by the emergency lights run by a separate generator.   
  
Their engines shut down, along with every vital instrument needed to run the ship. Only the gravity generator and the life-support systems were left running. Even the escape pods were disabled. They were left dead in space.  
  
Dead in space, that is, until another tractor beam grabbed them. No longer able to fight, their freighter was pulled backwards until the hull of another ship was less than a meter away. A docking collar from the unidentified ship attached itself to the hull of the Jinn's freighter, and a laser cutter cut a hole, allowing the boarders to enter the ship.  
  
"They caught our ship, but they'll never get us!" Viktyr said as he pulled a metallic haft from under his jacket. "Lana, go get Qui-Gon and put him someplace safe. I'll handle these pirates!"  
  
"Be careful, Viktyr Jinn!" He grinned, but there was no humor in his face. He left the cockpit and headed in the direction that the boarders had docked their ship. Lana headed below deck to retrieve their two-year-old son, Qui-Gon.   
  
Viktyr, meanwhile, found himself facing a tall man, shrouded in black, with icy blue eyes and blond hair.   
  
"What do you want with us," Viktyr said as he looked up into the pirate's eyes. He shivered at the utter coldness of this stranger's glare.   
  
"Not you. Your son." The stranger folded his arms across his broad chest. The stranger's eyes narrowed only slightly. "My name is Lord Varice, Viktyr Jinn."   
  
Viktyr's eyes narrowed at the stranger. "I'm not impressed with titles. Just get out of here."  
  
Varice's cold eyes narrowed more, and his lips became a snarl. "Give up your son, Jinn, or die!"  
  
Having had enough of Varice's threats, Viktyr pushed all thoughts from his mind and dropped his focus into the blissful realm of the Force. He lifted the lightsaber and ignited it.   
  
If Viktyr had not been immersed in the Force, he would have been surprised to see Varice also ignite a lightsaber, a ruby-red blade extending almost two meters from the handle. This man was an agent of the Dark Side. Viktyr waited for Varice to start the fight, which began with a wide cut of impossible speed that narrowly missed Viktyr.   
  
Viktyr jumped towards Varice in an effort to immobilize the use of his incredibly long lightsaber. He slashed and stabbed, hoping subconsciously that Varice would retreat. But instead, Varice blocked every strike, and never once gave an inch. Even more incredibly, he did all of this one handed. Viktyr Jinn, a Jedi Master, was outmatched. But he would not give up until his son was safely away. He continued to press his attack, his lightsaber dancing through his fingers like a snake. Varice finally moved from where he stood, and Viktyr felt a flash of hope as he saw an opening. He lunged, and forced his lightsaber into Varice's abdomen. Varice, not even cringing from the injury, merely ran his own lightsaber through Viktyr.   
  
"Nooooo!" shouted Lana, who had been watching the fight since she had deposited Qui-Gon in the hidden cargo compartment. She stood, stunned, not five meters from where her husband lay dead, seething with anger. Viktyr would have told her then to not let anger consume her, but she was so overwhelmed with rage that she could not help it. She began to charge at Varice.  
  
Varice, noticing the enraged woman's charge, pointed his palm in her direction. She was thrown back against the bulkhead, and was pinned there. Varice closed his eyes for a moment, and drove his lightsaber down through the deck, and began to cut a circle around the hidden cargo compartment where Qui-Gon was hiding.   
  
"No! Don't! You monster!" Lana cried in anguish as she tried to break free from her invisible restraints. But Varice ignored her, and pulled the short, brown-haired boy from the compartment. He jumped back up into his ship and resealed the hull that he had cut away.   
  
A moment later, Lana was released from her restraints against the bulkhead, and she fell to the deck weeping madly. Her only son was kidnapped by a Dark Jedi. She climbed to her feet and made a call to Coruscant, the capitol of the Republic.   
  
***  
  
Republic authorities had taken Lana to a neutral space station and given her protection. When she was safe, he arrived.  
  
"Lana Jinn?" said a calm voice from the doorway. Lana's head snapped around to look at the source of the voice. What she saw surprised her a great deal.  
  
A young man -- a boy, really -- stood in the doorway. He was of medium height and rather stocky, but the air of calmness around him certainly revealed his true nature. He wore a baggy off-white tunic, with green-brown skirt-like trousers. His blond hair and blue eyes startled her, due to her prior experience with Varice, but she quickly regained her composure. She was about to inquire why such a young man was in her doorway when she noticed a metallic haft hanging from the left side of his belt. Then she knew that this boy was a Jedi Knight. In fact, this one was an nineteen-year-old Jedi, who had been given full knighthood only a few months earlier.   
  
"Yes?" answered Lana after her scrutiny of the boy.  
  
"I am Kiu Gan-Ja." He smiled, only moving the corners of his lips, but it was certainly a charming smile. He WAS undeniably handsome. "I have learned that your son was kidnapped by a Dark Jedi." It was not a question.  
  
"That's right," Lana stammered. Tears began to well up in her eyes at the memory of her son being pulled out of their ship in the arms of that impossibly tall Varice. "He also murdered my husband --"  
  
"--Viktyr," he finished for her. "I'm very sorry." He still stood in the doorway.  
  
"Please, come in and have a seat." He came inside and seat on a small footstool in the corner, opposite from where she sat on her bed. "And don't worry about my husband. He died trying to save our son." She looked into the boy's eyes, which were surprisingly calm, but contained sympathy, as if he had experienced a similar loss.   
  
"I know. Master Yoda and the Jedi Council have prepared a memorial service, if you so wish for it to proceed." She shook her head.   
  
"No. Viktyr would not want any sort of service until Qui-Gon is safe."  
  
"I understand." He leaned back into the corner of the room. "I know the details of the incident from the files you and the Republic put out. But I do not know the details of this Dark Jedi. Could you describe him to me?"  
  
Lana nodded. "He was very tall, probably close to two-and-a-half meters. He was cloaked in black robes that hid his build, but I could tell he was very strong. He had light blond hair, almost white, and blue eyes. I remember those eyes; they were the coldest damned eyes I've ever seen! He also had a lightsaber."   
  
Kiu's brow furrowed. "Describe the lightsaber."  
  
"The handle was long -- longer than yours, for sure. It had a lot of switches, and was made of black metal. I couldn't see any part of it that looked like steel. And the blade was almost two meters long. And red. Very, very red." Her eyes became glossy and distant.  
  
"I believe I know this man," Kiu said, bringing Lana back to the present. Her eyes pleaded for him to explain. "Well, when I was about fourteen, my Master and I were sent on a mission to allay a rebellion incited by a man similar in description to your son's abductor. My Master and he fought in a vicious lightsaber battle, and I remember the dark one's blade." He leaned forward, and his eyes were intense. "Was his name Varice?" Lana shuddered. That was all the confirmation that he needed. Kiu stood, and his off-white clothes hid most of his physical bulk -- which was surely muscle, Lana had decided. He approached her, and held out his hand. She took it. "Miss Jinn. I will find your son and bring him safely back here. You relax now, and get a lot of rest."  
  
As he said this, Lana began to feel very tired, as if his words had made her so. He no doubt had used the Force to do so, but she knew that he was right. Before her head hit the pillow, she was asleep. Kiu laid her back onto the bed, and tossed a light blanket over her.  
  
"Varice," he murmured. "Give back the boy." With that, he stood and left the room, locking the door as he left.  
  
***  
  
Now in his own personal shuttle, the _Halcyon_, and flying through hyperspace, Kiu began to search the Republic's files for reports about Varice. Not surprisingly, there were few.   
  
Of the few that existed, most of which contained little helpful information. Kiu switched off the readout screen and sat back in the pilot's seat, sighing.  
  
"Varice, you animal," he murmured. "First a rebellion on a world already torn by war, and now you kidnap a boy whose only crime is being alive." Kiu stood from the pilot's seat and exited the cockpit, heading towards the stern, where he had a medium-sized training room.  
  
The training room was square and unadorned, about ten meters by ten meters by four meters -- large enough for a remarkable training session. Along the far wall was a panel that controlled the gravity of the room. He made his way to that.  
  
This shuttle had been a gift from his Master's family after he had died. It had been this very ship that Master Cul'loch had owned when he was a lowly knight. Now Kiu's, it was a ship whose entire existence had been in the service of the Order of Jedi Knights.  
  
This room was where both Kiu and his Master had training rigorously for hours to get in shape. Though Master Yoda's opinion that a controller of the Force needn't rely on physical strength was well-founded and widely believed--even by Master Cul'loch--Master Cul'loch's philosophy on the matter was that even though control of the Force was a mental activity, a controller of the Force must remain fit and strong. Thus, he and his pupils would always train very hard. This room could change the gravity from normal gravity to a hundred-fifty times normal gravity. Master Cul'loch believed that, even while drowned in the Force's wisdom and guidance--he never used the term power, for using the Force for power is a dark side trait--the body still endured physical punishment. Therefore, by training with the Force at greater gravity levels, Master Cul'loch blieved that one could achieve a true connection with the Force.  
  
Kiu made his way to the panel, which lay in a meter-square section of the floor which always remained untouched by whatever gravity was in the rest of the room. Master Cul'loch had called it a "safe-zone." Kiu stripped off his tunic and _hakama_ (the skirtlike pants worn by Cul'loch and now too by Kiu), leaving Kiu standing in the room with nothing on but a pair of shorts and tank top. He adjusted the dials on the panel to arrange the gravity at seventy times normal gravity.   
  
He took a deep breath, and made his way out into the room. Immediately, and even through the buffer of the Force, Kiu felt the tremendous weight put upon him by the gravity. He ignored it, and began a series of wind sprints back and forth across the room. To an oustider, it almost looked at if he were gliding across the room, for the Force's enhancing his speed, plus his own pysical prowess gave him tremendous speed. After about twenty nonstop laps, he made his way to the center of the room. He leapt into the air, hovered for a moment, and fell heavily back to the floor. However, instead of landing, he sailed across the floor and zipped midway up the wall. Now appearing to "stand" on the wall, he pushed off and literally flew across the room. He looked as if he were bouncing of the walls at various angles, each time staying on the exact same plane, but bouncing from wall to wall, every once and a while throwing a flurry of punches. This continued for about thirty more minutes--less time than usual.  
  
He dropped to the middle of the room, and reached out with his right hand. His lightsaber flew from its latch on his belt and right into his hand. He activated it, and a shimmering green blade extended from the handle. Now, he began series of complicated slashes and thrusts, dancing this way and that across the floor, lightsaber flowing like a snake between his fingers. And this continued for about fifteen minutes--still a lot less time than usual.  
  
He landed again in the center of the room, and switched off the gravity machine through the Force. After that, he let go of the Force, and he collapsed to the floor, but covered in a sheen of sweat. He stood slowly, and walked toward the panel. He flipped a switch, and the image of a droid appeared on the screen.  
  
"What is it Master Gan-Ja?" the droid piped metallically.   
  
"Enzechs," Kiu said wearily. "Prepare a shower for me, and get me some clean clothes."  
  
"At once, sir."  



End file.
